India vs England 2nd Test: How DRS made the contest interesting

Had there been no DRS, there would have no king pair for Anderson, no four wickets for Jayant and no such interesting twists and turns.

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DRS was used for as many as 20 times by both teams in the second Test between India and England at Visakhapatnam. The total number of DRS used in this Test was surely much more than as compared to the first Test, where DRS comes into play only 9 times. However, the first Test ended in a draw and second Test ended with a result, which brings a positive thinking towards DRS, as the more a team uses DRS, the more it helps in getting fair result and brings interest with lots of twists and turns in the game. Gone are those days when cricket totally relied on umpire’s judgement and accuracy.

From those 20 reviews, six times on-field umpires’ decision was overturned and four of them on-field call by Rod Tucker, while two were by Kumar Dharmasena. Whenever there was a decision reviewed during the match, fans on social media were ready to troll Dharamasena and it has been happening since the recently concluded two-Test series between Bangladesh and England. Many also suggested changing the full form of DRS from Decision Review System to Dharamasena Review System. Jokes apart, Dharmasena did pretty well in this Test as an umpire. Also, if someone looks at which umpire’s decision were overturned most in this Test, then Tucker’s name will be up in the list.

The hullabaloo over DRS was much more before and after the end of first Test at Rajkot. However, this unique technology actually comes into play widely in the second Test. In the first Test, five out of 9 times, review was used against Dharmasena, while four against Chris Gaffaney. All five reviews against Dharmasena were struck down and only against Gaffaney was upheld.

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But in the second Test, the love affair between DRS and Dharamasena took U-turn as 8 times DRS was used against him, which is quite less as compared to Tucker, who was asked to review 12 times. From those 8 reviews against Dharamasena, two were upheld, while rest were overturned, which is better as compared to Tucker. Four out of 12 reviews against Tucker were upheld and that makes Dharmasena a better umpire. Despite all those, the focus will be always on Dharamasena, whenever there is a review asked by any team.

Throughout the second Test, there was always a review expected after every appeal. Irrespective of the decision given by the on-field umpire, either bowling or batting side, both go for a little chat to discuss whether it was necessary to take review or not. Despite all those discussions, many times, reviews went unsuccessful. Also, many times bowlers gets frustrated from the umpire decision and takes unnecessary review in his desperation, which happened with England bowlers on Day one of the match.

On Day one of the match, England went for two reviews against Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, both were struck down by third umpire. There was no review taken by the Indian side throughout the day despite losing four wickets.

On Day two, finally a successful review came into scene, when Kohli asked for a review against Moeen Ali. The on-field decision was not out but after reviewing it, third umpire gave it out. It was not just another review by India, in fact it was a special one because debutant Jayant Yadav got his maiden Test wicket because of DRS. Had there been no DRS in this series, Jayant could not have taken his maiden Test wicket in the first innings of this match and it may have put his confidence down. Out of four reviews from Day two, only one went successful.

Day three of the Test was interesting for both cricket fans and DRS as well. England, who began their day with five down for 98, got an excellent start with the help of Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow‘s century stand. The desperation of taking wicket had shifted from England to India as Ravichandran Ashwin asked for a review in the very first ball of the second over of the day without even discussing with his captain and wicketkeeper. Ashwin was probably overconfident as the review was struck down.

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India took that unsuccessful review pretty seriously as they did asked for any other review in the entire Day Three. On the other hand, four reviews were asked by England side on Day Three, two while batting and two while bowling. While batting, both of England reviews were struck down, as it was unnecessary. The reason behind those reviews being unnecessary is England were eight down at that time, they were trying to find any hope to drag the innings as long as possible.

That hope finally came for England but later towards the end of Day’s play as both their reviews against Indian openers. This makes England an intelligent user of reviews while bowling as compared to while batting because they have a tendency to take unnecessary review while batting.

Day four of the match took an interesting turn as DRS did not help much in the outcome, it just delayed a bit. As the first review of the day by Ashwin went in his favour and despite that, he could score only seven and soon got out to the same bowler Stuart Broad, against whom he went for a successful review earlier. Similarly, the next two reviews by Indian batsman Wriddhiman Saha and Kohli were struck and regardless of that, both were dismissed soon.

Further, after giving a challenging target of 405 to England, it was the time for Indian bowlers to show their desperation for wicket after the blockathon started by Alastair Cook and Haseeb Hameed. After a very slow start from England openers, Indian bowlers began frustrating when they were unable to get any wicket even after 45 overs.

Both Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin asked for review against Cook in back-to-back overs and in this process, India lost both their reviews. Despite that, both England openers lost their wicket towards the end of Day Four. The on-field umpires may have not realised that four out of five reviews went unsuccessful. In addition, one review, which went successful, did not help the batsman much.

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The final day of the Test began with a successful review by Joe Root but again, that went in vain for him as he could not replicate that into a big one by staying long. Root was at 11, when he reviewed but ended up adding up only 14 more runs to his score. Also, it seemed like Root was destined to be given out by the same on-field umpire as after getting dismissed for 25, he went for another review, which struck down.

After that, England started losing wickets and once again, they took two unnecessary reviews, which did not come in their favour but the match ended on a very interesting note because last wicket of James Anderson had a special significance for both bowler and batsman.

Anderson got out on golden duck and it was the second for him in this Test, which made him become the first English cricketer to bag a king pair since 1906, third from England and fourth player against India.

Also, Anderson was Jayant’s fourth wicket in his debut Test and that made him the second Indian played to score 60 plus runs and scalp four or more wickets in his first match after Abid Ali. The question arises – had there been no DRS, there would have no king pair for Anderson, no four wickets for Jayant and no such interesting twists and turns.

Both the teams did decent job in using reviews and the below table will give the clear picture of how both the teams used this technology while bowling and batting.